The pundits have been reporting that Trump’s month in the wilderness cost him support in the latest round of polling because that’s what Beltway conventional wisdom dictates. But any decent Clinton strategist knows the numbers are telling a different, and much scarier, story for her.

She’s tied in North Carolina, up 3 in Pennsylvania, and up 2 in Ohio. In one poll this week, 49 percent of voters said it was very important to them to make sure Trump is not elected President. But in that same poll, only 42 percent were willing to vote for Clinton, meaning even people who are dead-set against Trump can’t bring themselves to vote for her. It’s not hard to guess why. Of the 56 percent who have an unfavorable view of her, 86 percent said it was either because she is not trustworthy or corrupt. Ouch…

It’s hard to imagine Trump will make the rest of this race as easy for Clinton as he has the last few weeks. He’s having a significantly better few days, and Brexit only helps his momentum. The fantasy within the Clinton campaign that they could easily take down Trump by calling him “dangerously incoherent” should be giving way to reality after this batch of polling.

Clinton is such a deeply flawed candidate that her staff is learning they can’t even run up the score against Trump during the worst month of his campaign. The fact is that most Americans have formed an opinion of Hillary Clinton over the span of her decades in the public eye, and for more than half the country, it’s not a good one. The last month has proven that making this election a Trump referendum may not be enough to erase Clinton’s negatives.